| 释义 |
House of Lords
The second chamber of Parliament (also known as the Upper House), which scrutinizes legislation and formerly exercised judicial functions. The House of Lords Act 1999 substantially changed the constitution of the House by excluding hereditary peers from a place in the House as of right, although for a transitional period 92 were allowed to remain on merit. Of these, 75 were elected by their own political party or by cross-bench (usually non-party-political) groups. A further 15 hereditary peers were elected to act as Deputy Speakers or Committee chairmen. Two hereditary royal appointments were also retained: the Earl Marshal and the Lord Great Chamberlain. The other members of the Lords are (as at June 2021) life peers (about 680) or bishops (26), comprising the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, the Bishops of London, Durham, and Winchester, and 21 other Anglican bishops (formerly selected according to seniority of appointment but now with a preference for women bishops, first consecrated in 2015). The House is now presided over by the Lord Speaker (a role formerly exercised by the Lord Chancellor) and its business is arranged, in consultation with the Opposition, by a government minister appointed Leader of the House. Long-term reform of the Lords continues to be debated; it is envisaged that the reformed chamber will have about 450 members but there is no agreement as to whether these should be elected, appointed, or some combination of the two. Until 2009 the Lords was the final court of appeal in the UK in both civil and criminal cases, although it referred some cases to the European Court of Justice for a ruling. In its judicial capacity the Lords formally adopted opinions delivered by an Appellate Committee (of which there were two), drawn from the Lords of Appeal in Ordinary and others who had held high judicial office. Under the Constitutional Reform Act 2005 the law lords were removed from the legislature to a new Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, which began sitting at the end of 2009. Under the same Act the judicial functions of the Lord Chancellor were transferred to the Lord Chief Justice. |